Metaphysics and Philosophy
List of Articles
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Meeting with Guillaume Lurson. “Refounding a Philosophy of the Soul”
Trained early in metaphysical reflection, Lurson found in the great abstract questions—being, freedom, the soul—a privileged access to the foundations of human problems. Influenced first by Kant, then nourished by Plato and Plotinus, he long experienced the tension between the desire for the absolute and its limits. His doctoral work on Félix Ravaisson (1813-1900) led him to rethink metaphysics beyond the separation between ontology and theology, seeking mediations that reconnect being and Spirit. He defends a form of spiritualism according to which Spirit permeates all levels of reality and manifests itself in diverse modalities. Fidelity to Spirit, unity of being and thought, and the resolution of moral and aesthetic questions form the core of his book on Ravaisson. Finally, he outlines the project of a contemporary refoundation of the philosophy of the soul, open to alterity and to the contributions of the human sciences.
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Meeting with Camille Chamois. “Are other worlds possible?”
What first awakened your interest in metaphysics? I became interested in this question in the mid-2000s (so rather late), when I was confronted with what then appeared to me as a paradox. On the one hand, I discovered that there was indeed a very active contemporary metaphysical scene (contrary to what the Heideggerian or Derridean […]
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Meeting with Laurent Cournarie: Metaphysics—or the Nostalgic Essence of Philosophy
It would certainly be excellent news to learn that metaphysics is not dead. But one may doubt its proclaimed rebirths as much as its endlessly repeated deaths. This doubt may well be the rather “deflationary” standpoint we personally adopt with regard to metaphysics. Being a metaphysician, doing metaphysics The little we have published on metaphysics—both […]
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Esotericism, Metaphysics and Gnosis: Some Elements
If esotericism is a veil, allowing us to know that there is something behind the veil, metaphysics, in the transparency of intelligence, is a revelation. However, these two approaches are only paths; gnosis cannot be attained by one’s own efforts, it is never anything other than a given.
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Philosophy… why live with it?
A hundred pages to enter into a life of philosophy, a journey through life. The adventure that every child discovers by naming things, the adventure that every adult pursues to a greater or lesser extent. It is because human beings are philosophers by nature, as Mr. Jourdain talked in prose (Molière, Le bourgeois gentilhomme/The Bourgeois Gentleman or The Would-Be Gentleman). They are even metaphysicians, said Schopenhauer. It is not surprising that this is confirmed in young people with severe disabilities. An experience that benefits us all. Bruno Bérard.
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Let’s not be semi-clever!
Pascal explicitly criticizes this common figure of the “semi-skilled,” undoubtedly inspired by Montaigne. Bourdieu, for his part, refers to “half-learned people.” What is important here is the idea that ignorance is both the starting point and the end point of the path to knowledge—which invites a posture of humility. Beyond this philosophical perspective, Pascal also hints at a dimension that could be described as Gnostic.
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One body for two
The concrete physical experience of motherhood (“one body for two”) allows us to relegate philosophical questions about gender to their rightful place, to talk about the female body without gender connotations, and to think about this place of origin for all of us, through pregnancy, as a “being-with” that precedes and makes possible the separate being that will be born. By reporting on this sociologically and philosophically, the philosopher—a woman and mother of three children—touches on this metaphysics of relationship, a necessary complement to the interminable metaphysics of being, and the ethical implications are huge.
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Metaphysics and axiology
Where do values come from? In economics, we know that high demand contributes to the value of coveted goods. It is more subtle in philosophy. In what capacity would Good or Truth be values? While axiology (the science of values) has not been able to establish itself, a more metaphysical point of view, based on tripartite human nature (body, psyche, spirit) seems to resolve the question.
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De ars athletica
Sport is a catch-all term, in which it’s interesting to distinguish between play, proper to children; spectacle, proper to entertainment; performance, proper to modern-day Belerephons – or even transhumanism; competition, proper to an artificially elitist vision of the world (as opposed to the more efficient functioning of cooperation), in which all are condemned to lose (except one); and, the only truly fundamental part, the physical exercise necessary for good health.
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Is science intrinsically scientistic?
Since science has varied considerably over the millennia, it’s no surprise that the scientistic drift that can accompany it has also varied. It is therefore impossible to define scientism without first characterizing science. Although scientists are almost never scientistic, we may well wonder whether science is not intrinsically scientistic. Once this doubt has been expressed, it’s time to try and remove it, or to confirm a certain “scientisticity” of science.
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Diversity and unity of religions
A “transcendent unity of religions” is problematic, as Jean Borella has repeatedly denounced. This article sets out his arguments for an analogous unity of religions and his view of what a religio perennis cannot be.
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Jean Borella: An Approach and a Work
Introduction This presentation of Jean Borella’s work seems authorized by the fact that, in a “small” book entitled Symbolisme et Réalité, histoire d’une réflexion (“Symbolism and Reality, the story of a reflection”), 1997 (69 pages), he himself deemed it useful “to retrace the genesis of [his] reflection on sacred symbolism, […] in order to make […]